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Irma Thomas biography, Irma Thomas discography
She is known as the "Soul Queen of New Orleans."Thomas is a contemporary of Aretha Franklin and Etta James, but never experienced their level of commercial success; still, she has a large cult following among soul aficionados.New Orleans, occasionally singing with bandleader Tommy Ridgley, who helped her land a record deal with the local Ron label.She then relocated to California, releasing records on various small labels, before returning to Louisiana, and in the early 1980s opened her own club, the Lion's Den.Simply the Best, recorded in San Francisco.She subsequently released a number of traditional gospel albums, together with more secular recordings.Thomas is still active as a performer, appearing annually at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.Thomas relocated to Gonzales, Louisiana, 60 miles from New Orleans, after Hurrican Katrina, but, according to her web site, she is now back in her home in New Orleans.In April 2007, The Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame honored Irma Thomas for her contributions to Louisiana music by inducting her into The Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame.Irma's 2006 "Big Easy" Award Winning band is named the "Professionals".Heritage Festival (Island)
1978 Soul Queen of New Orleans (Maison De Soul)
1979 Safe with Me (RCS)
1981 In Between Tears (reissue) (Charly) Fungus
1981 Hip Shakin' Mama (reissue of Island LP) (Charly) Island
1986 The New Rules (Rounder)
1988 The Way I Feel (Rounder)
1991 Live: Simply the Best (Rounder)
1992 True Believer (Rounder)
1993 Walk Around Heaven: New Orleans Gospel Soul (Rounder)
1997 The Story of My Life (Rounder)
1998 Sing It!External links
Official Site
Fan page, includes extensive bio and discography
Interview with Irma Thomas by John Sinclair
Bio from Allmusic.All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.As a teenager she sang in a gospel quartet in Home Mission
Baptist Church, but her very first recording was a school song,
which was recorded at Cosimo's studio.Ridgley's band was playing at
the club, and Irma asked if she could sing with them.At this point Ridgley came to her aid and
promised to get her a recording contract.Success has come to lots of them
and a failure is always there
time waits for no one
and I wish, how I wish someone would care...On the flip side of the single there was another topnotch song, this
time written by Jackie DeShannon and Sharon Sheeley.I'm leaving town tomorrow, I'll find somebody new,
and there'll be no more sorrow".Although the song didn't make the
national US charts on its own, it was a local hit in New Orleans, and
there was a British cover version by Beryl Marsden."Time Is On My Side" was possibly
the greatest of them all: "Anyone Who Knows..."At first her material was recorded
in Los Angeles (with backing vocals by Darlene Love and the
Blossoms), but some of her later records were cut in New York
under the supervision of Jerry Ragovoy, who also produced
numerous memorable records with Garnet Mimms, Howard Tate
and Lorraine Ellison.Her first four Imperial singles all charted on Billboard's pop chart, but
unfortunately the success of her later Imperial releases didn't live up
to the expectations (one of them missed charts completely, and four
of them "bubbled under", but did not hit the Top 100).Fats Domino were long gone), and it's possible that the
company simply wasn't very good at promoting them.At that time Chess was sending
many of their top artists down to Muscle Shoals instead of recording
them at their own studios in Chicago, and Muscle Shoals was also Irma's
next destination.Two sessions at Rick Hall's Fame studio produced
several fine sourthern soul ballads, three of which were tried as a
single.Irma,
she didn't go along with their plans ("They wanted to control
my life, and I wasn't gonna go for that"), which meant that her singles
didn't get proper national promotion from the label.Her brief stay on the famed Atlantic label was particularly
frustrating: She recorded as many as nineteen tracks for the label in
three different sessions, but apart from a solitary Cotillion single,
none of this material was released.She later complained that her producers
were trying to make her sound like Diana Ross.New Orleans, where she
was still popular as a live performer.In 1977 she married her present
husband and manager Emile Jackson, with whom she also owned a club
("Lion's Den") in New Orleans.Irma's
performance at the 1976 New Orleans Jazz Festival without consulting
her at all.This material has later come out on Island and Charly ("Hip
Shakin' Mama"), but Irma claims that she got no royalties from
these releases."Safe With Me" (RCS, 1980) put her in
a more modern setting, but despite receiving a good deal of initial
attention for the album, the label wasn't able to make Irma
a pop star.Her comeback as a recording artist started in 1986, when Scott
Billington of Rounder Records approached her.Author Jeff Hannusch
(who had interviewed her in the book "I Hear You Knockin'") had told
the company about her.Simply
the Best", gained her a Grammy nomination in 1991.It was recorded
at Slim's in San Francisco, and Irma was backed by her own band,
the Professionals."It's my roots", she told in a Soul
Express magazine interview.Irma chose the material
herself with some songs being her special favorites.Irma's singing was
really strong.B", she says, "I don't mix the two of them in the
same show".Fortunately Irma didn't abandon secular music completely, although
it took three years before she released her next album, "The Story of
My Life" (1997), again on Rounder.I'm really selective because I have to live the songs I record."Marcia Ball
and Tracy Nelson.They all sang together on a number of songs, while
each of them also got to sing a couple of solo tracks.However, it soon appeared that she had been away from
home, gigging in Austin, Texas.Although most of the material had been chosen before the storm, her
2006 album "After the Rain" reflected on the big catastrophy that had
claimed many lives and destroyed much of her home city.In addition to the songs on the album, she had also recorded an atmospheric
version of Bessie Smith's "Back Water Blues", which appeared on the benefit
album "Our New Orleans".During the sixties she was a popular
performer in the Southern college circuit (which was portrayed in the film
"Animal House"), she toured with people like James Brown, she
appeared in New York's famous Apollo theatre, and she even visited
UK once.She really seemed to be enjoying herself, and she sounded great
both on her classic Minit and Imperial material and on more recent tunes.Roger Hahn: Irma Thomas' Heart May Be in Memphis, But Her Soul Will Always Be in
New Orleans.Jeff Hannusch: Backtalk with Irma Thomas.Michael Earl Lane: Soul Queen of New Orleans.An audience with the Soul Queen of New Orleans.Heikki Suosalo:
Interview with IrmaThomas.Philip van Vleck: Irma Thomas: The Soul Queen of New Orleans.Enter your location in the text box below and click the Change Location button.Aretha Franklin and Etta James but nevertheless breathing the same rarified air in the minds of many soul music aficionados.At 17 she wed again, this time to one Andrew Thomas, having two more babies before she again divorced, all before the age of 20.Thomas went to work as a waitress at New Orleans' Pimlico Club, occasionally sitting in with bandleader Tommy Ridgley.Imperial Records acquired Minit in 1963, and Thomas' contract was included in the deal.Emile Jackson, she opened the Lion's Den, a New Orleans club where she regularly headlined, and she also toured Europe, where her records still merited regular airplay.In 1985, she was approached by Rounder Records producer Scott Billington to make a comeback record.She waited until 1997 to release her next secular record, The Story of My Life, blaming the delay in interviews on her difficulty in finding material appropriate to her age and sensibility.Thomas shifted gears radically for 1998's Sing It!Simply Grand was issued on Rounder Records in 2008, and featured Thomas in an acoustic setting accompanied by a host of piano players, including Dr.John, Ellis Marsalis, Randy Newman, and others.Be the first to share your thoughts with others!Show only the first 7 related performers...Irma Thomas first hit in the 1950s as a teenager, with one of the the rawest, hottest records ever to come out of the scene, "You Can Have My Husband (But Please Don't Mess with My Man)."She continued through the 1960s, with hits like "It's Raining," "Pain in my Heart," and "Time Is on My Side," later made famous by the Rolling Stones.Other singers of her generation have retired, or limit their appearances to festivals and oldies packages, but Thomas's reputation has only grown with the years.Thomas radiates a southern warmth, drawing audiences into her world and making them glad they came.During the first year of the new
millennium, Ms.Dan Penn compositions produced by Penn and Scott Billington.Mess with My Man)" (Ron 328, 1959).Raining" (Minit 653), and "Ruler of
My Heart" (Minit 666).Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight and Dionne Warwick.Turn My World Around, Shanachie, 1993).Walk Around Heaven (1993), The Story of My Life (1997),
and a special project called Sing It!Grammy as Best Contemporary Blues Recording,
and Sing It!Irma Thomas: I came up in
a good time, I think, for music.Annie Laurie, she was okay.Apollo Theatre, and then I says, "God, I remember going
to the movies and doing this."Then when I lived in the country,
I had that country music side.The Pimlico Club was on the corner
of South Broad and Eve.Pimlico Club, and they had live entertainment
there Wednesday through Sunday.Five dollars could go a long way
back then.CD coming out this spring.Dan more or less direct
and produce what they were comfortable with doing.Scott Billington is an excellent
producer.It came off very well in the studio.Just sing, and it all
fell together.And I may choose, out of the 12, I may choose half of them.You gotta realize, this is my what?"Okay, I want this
to sound like this," or "I want this to go like that."Memphis, where we did the tracks
for my new CD.How long have you been pursuing this?"Amazing Grace" to some drunkards."Amazing Grace" and thinking about the Almighty, and
they might be thinking about Grace at the end of the bar.But we still have an audience out
there, thank God!He walked up to me and says, "You sing good."And all I said was,
"Thank you."
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